I hope you are enjoying our 45th Annual Parish Festival, which benefits our parish school 100%. It was originally begun as a one-day St. Paddy’s event for the school, but “has grown by leaps and bounds” over the years. Removed from the middle of March because of conflicting schedules of carnival workers and others, it has become a staple of the Delray and Boynton Beach communities and our “snow-bird” visitors. I thank our Moms and Dads (and a good number of Grandparents, too) for the volunteerism over these days, including setting up and taking down so many items that help make it a huge success. Our children are also involved with volunteer services at the festival, while benefitting from some time for the family fun. All of this takes place under the leadership of Mr. Gerard Olortegui and his countless assistants. May God bless them for their service to our parish in helping to keep the expense of receiving a quality Catholic education to a minimum. May our parish family continue to show their appreciation to these fine workers by treating them with the respect they deserve during these exhausting days at work.
We are sorry to say “good-bye” to our Sister Maria Gruszka, LSIC, who departed for her native Poland this past week in order to take care of her ailing mother, Zofia (89), who suffers from the effects of a debilitating stroke. Sister Maria has served us well as Director of Religious Education and Sacristan. Her many hours of dedicated service to God’s House and His people will be sorely missed. She asks for your prayers for her Mom, and I assured her you will do so. In her place as Director of Religious Education, I have appointed Mr. A.J. Castro, who will also serve as an assistant to Mrs. Heather Hackett in our Youth Ministry Program of LIFE TEEN and EDGE. “A.J.” has had experience working in these areas, and I’ve assured him of your support in his work here. You’ll probably be seeing him at this weekend’s Festival.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has flatly rejected President Obama’s obsequious so-called “accommodation,” on the recently issued mandatory birth control edict, calling it “an assault on the freedoms and sensibilities of all religious believers everywhere.” Good for them! They have stood up for the religious freedom of their own faithful as well as all other believers. Some media pundits are calling this “the greatest fight for religious liberty in our domestic politics in our lifetime.” But, the real issue here is not contraception or even abortion, although the media and the pro-choice crowd are trying to put contraception in the forefront in order to isolate the Bishops. No, the issue here is religious liberty: Can the state trample on the rights of people’s consciences and force citizens to violate what they believe are their obligations before God? I sure don’t want my tax money going to violate my principles!
What we are witnessing is a profound assault on what our Nation’s founders thought was the primary, foundational liberty which had to be guaranteed—the right to the free exercise of religion. If this right is destroyed, then no bulwark against tyranny will remain. This is why we must redouble our efforts to defend religious freedom. In the end, we all know this is a spiritual battle. If you call this a “battle,” then the battle lines are drawn. No Christian can afford to be on the sidelines. Many Churches and believers of many Christian traditions and denominations are standing together as one. Even non-Christian leaders have signed a petition to address this issue with Mr. Obama. Our strength is in our unity and in our determination to be faithful to the Lord in whatever he calls us to do.
Though it’s occurring in an election year, and some are saying that the Catholics have made this a political issue, our President could have very easily avoided this situation at this time; it seems that the “political football” was punted from his side of the field at the moment his advisors thought best. So, while we get on our knees, let’s ask our friends to join alongside us to pray, especially, that God might use this dreadful threat to unite His Church and raise us up for action. We must also contact our Congress (both Houses) to ask them to circumvent the whimsical fantasies of this Administration by introducing legislative action that will stop the executive “fiat” of our President and his puppet, the so-called “Catholic” head of the Health and Human Services Department. I thank you for your co-operation in our defense of the most precious of all our basic 4 freedoms: freedom of religion.
We are sorry to say “good-bye” to our Sister Maria Gruszka, LSIC, who departed for her native Poland this past week in order to take care of her ailing mother, Zofia (89), who suffers from the effects of a debilitating stroke. Sister Maria has served us well as Director of Religious Education and Sacristan. Her many hours of dedicated service to God’s House and His people will be sorely missed. She asks for your prayers for her Mom, and I assured her you will do so. In her place as Director of Religious Education, I have appointed Mr. A.J. Castro, who will also serve as an assistant to Mrs. Heather Hackett in our Youth Ministry Program of LIFE TEEN and EDGE. “A.J.” has had experience working in these areas, and I’ve assured him of your support in his work here. You’ll probably be seeing him at this weekend’s Festival.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has flatly rejected President Obama’s obsequious so-called “accommodation,” on the recently issued mandatory birth control edict, calling it “an assault on the freedoms and sensibilities of all religious believers everywhere.” Good for them! They have stood up for the religious freedom of their own faithful as well as all other believers. Some media pundits are calling this “the greatest fight for religious liberty in our domestic politics in our lifetime.” But, the real issue here is not contraception or even abortion, although the media and the pro-choice crowd are trying to put contraception in the forefront in order to isolate the Bishops. No, the issue here is religious liberty: Can the state trample on the rights of people’s consciences and force citizens to violate what they believe are their obligations before God? I sure don’t want my tax money going to violate my principles!
What we are witnessing is a profound assault on what our Nation’s founders thought was the primary, foundational liberty which had to be guaranteed—the right to the free exercise of religion. If this right is destroyed, then no bulwark against tyranny will remain. This is why we must redouble our efforts to defend religious freedom. In the end, we all know this is a spiritual battle. If you call this a “battle,” then the battle lines are drawn. No Christian can afford to be on the sidelines. Many Churches and believers of many Christian traditions and denominations are standing together as one. Even non-Christian leaders have signed a petition to address this issue with Mr. Obama. Our strength is in our unity and in our determination to be faithful to the Lord in whatever he calls us to do.
Though it’s occurring in an election year, and some are saying that the Catholics have made this a political issue, our President could have very easily avoided this situation at this time; it seems that the “political football” was punted from his side of the field at the moment his advisors thought best. So, while we get on our knees, let’s ask our friends to join alongside us to pray, especially, that God might use this dreadful threat to unite His Church and raise us up for action. We must also contact our Congress (both Houses) to ask them to circumvent the whimsical fantasies of this Administration by introducing legislative action that will stop the executive “fiat” of our President and his puppet, the so-called “Catholic” head of the Health and Human Services Department. I thank you for your co-operation in our defense of the most precious of all our basic 4 freedoms: freedom of religion.
Very Rev. Canon Tom
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